32 years’ jail for serial criminal who raped daughter at knifepoint | The New Paper
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32 years’ jail for serial criminal who raped daughter at knifepoint

This article is more than 12 months old

A serial criminal who raped his then 23-year-old daughter at knifepoint - less than a month after she picked him up from prison, persuaded her mother to take him in and found him a job - was sentenced to 32 years' jail yesterday.

In passing sentence, High Court judge Hoo Sheau Peng noted the 53-year-old's violent criminal past - he was handed jail and caning sentences for attempted murder in 2000 and for robbery with hurt in 2010.

"The accused has not learnt from his previous brushes with the law and the lengthy sentences that he served," she said.

Justice Hoo also noted that the man had made "spurious allegations" against his daughter, who is now 28, claiming that she had framed him and that she had consented to the sexual acts.

The man, who is not named due to a gag order to protect the victim's identity, cannot be caned as he is over the age of 50.

He was found guilty last month of nine charges relating to sexual and violent offences against the victim on March 27, 2016, when they were alone at home.

The court heard that the victim, who has an older brother and younger sister, was the only person to visit the man when he was in prison. Her parents divorced when she was young.

When he was released from prison on March 2, 2016, she went with her boyfriend and a friend to pick him up.

She then persuaded her mother to let the man stay in the studio flat that the two women shared until he found alternative lodgings. She also found him a job as a forklift driver.

The victim testified that when she returned home in the early hours of March 27 that year, she found him drinking and staring angrily at the blank TV screen. She drank with him for a while and then went to bed at about 3am.

The next thing she knew, he was touching her inappropriately while holding a penknife to her neck. When she asked him what he was doing, he told her not to shout and threatened to slash her.

As she cried and begged him to stop, the man accused her of being involved in a plot with her mother and brother to send him to prison. After he raped her, she asked tearfully why he was doing this to her when she had been there for him all these years.

When she grabbed the knife from him, he punched her and tried to strangle her. He then snatched the knife back and raped her a second time.

Later, she asked him for her mobile phone and called her boyfriend to pick her up.

When he came over, she broke down and told him what her father had done.

The man alleged they had consensual sex and claimed she had seduced him two days earlier.

Justice Hoo accepted the daughter's version and rejected the man's "incredible" account.

COURT & CRIME